


No One Told You Life Was Gonna Be This Way

by Hogmisty



Category: Friends (TV), The Purge (Movies)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Best Friends, Crossover, Friends to Enemies, Gen, Home Invasion, The Purge, friends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2020-10-04 02:49:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20463785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hogmisty/pseuds/Hogmisty
Summary: The Purge came around as it did every year. It wasn't a big deal. They had a plan. They had a schedule. They had a system. A group of friends were going to spend 12 hours watching movies and playing games whilst the world outside was busy releasing the beast. But life doesn't always go the way you expect it to and the Purge has a way of bringing out the worst in people. By the end of the night, the friends start to wonder if they'll make it through the Purge in one piece and whether their friendship will do the same.





	1. Chapter 1

"This is not a test. This is your emergency broadcast system announcing the commencement of the Annual Purge sanctioned by the U.S. Government. Weapons of class 4 and lower have been authorized for use during the Purge. All other weapons are restricted. Government officials of ranking 10 have been granted immunity from the Purge and shall not be harmed. Commencing at the siren, any and all crime, including murder, will be legal for 12 continuous hours. Police, fire, and emergency medical services will be unavailable until tomorrow morning until 7 a.m., when The Purge concludes. Blessed be our New Founding Fathers and America, a nation reborn. May God be with you all."

The public announcement made itself heard and was no more, followed as ever by the contemplative silence of a nation readying itself in this last moment of calm before the storm.

Rachel, Monica, Ross and Phoebe had gathered in Rachel and Monica's apartment like they'd done during every Purge they'd spent together. They always felt safer spending the night as a group, though unless someone had a personal vendetta against you there wasn't too much to be afraid of if you weren't caught out on the street.

Joey and Chandler were late again. It was almost a yearly tradition at this point. They were most likely arguing over what snacks or movies they should bring with them or trying to corral the chick and the duck into their cages.

It was expected but still gave Monica reason to pace the floor in concern.

"I'm so glad those morons decide to leave their prep-work until the last minute. I mean, it's not like there's a purge happening out there or anything!"

"It's fine," Rachel soothed, "they're just across the hall. What, is someone gonna taken them both down in the three feet they have to walk to get here?"

"Oooooh, maybe the little old lady down the hall will finally make her move!" Phoebe chimed in. "She always looks so shifty when I see her. I bet this is the year she finally lets her inner beast out of its cage."

Monica slumped into a chair. "It's the principal of it. Tonight is important, we have a system, we have plans and backup plans which include Joey and Chandler! And none of those plans involve them being late!"

"Well maybe you should have worked up some contingency plans to add to your flow chart. It's kind of your fault for not expecting it at this point" said Ross, looking up from the whiteboard outlining a complex diagram titled 'Monica's Multi-Step Purge Plan'.

Monica pouted in response to this, but didn't reply, choosing to worry at her fingernails instead.

A knock at the door told the group Chandler and Joey were finally ready, only a few minutes behind Monica's schedule.

"See Monica? Nothing to worry about!" Rachel reassured her antsy friend as she went over to the door. Nevertheless, she still raised a cautious eye to the peep-hole to make sure it really was Joey and Chandler. It never hurt to be cautious on the night of the Purge.

She unlocked the door. There were five locks in total, and the door itself had been reinforced. The only way someone was getting into the apartment was with permission or with industrial power tools.

"All right!" Cried Chandler. "The night has officially begun!"

Joey followed him in, carrying a box which would be full of snacks and movies to entertain and distract the friends over the next 12 hours. He looked less buoyant than usual, his boyish face exuding none of it's usual youthful good nature.

"Finally!" Exclaimed Monica. "We're behind schedule. I bet the two of you didn't even glance at the handouts I made for you."

"I did so!" Chandler retorted. "I mean, I didn't read all of it, but I glanced!"

"Did you bring it with you?" Asked Monica.

"Well... No. It's in the bathroom in our apartment." Admitted Chandler.

"The Bathroom. Are you telling me that you used my Purge plan as toilet reading material?"

"Well hey, at least I didn't use it as toilet paper!" Chandler snickered at his own joke. "Come on Monica, I don't think we need a plan to sit in a room for 12 hours."

"It's the principle!" Repeated Monica. "Anything could happen tonight, we should be prepared! God, we should have spent the Purge at my parents' house like they suggested."

"And listen to them go on and on the great virtues of the New Founding Fathers all evening? Pass." Phoebe replied.

"Well, it has been proven that the Purge process is actually a very effective method of keeping crime levels down-" Before Ross could begin one of his Pro-Purge soapbox speeches, Joey interrupted him.

"Thankyou Mr. Professor, now can we please lock the doors, bar the windows and watch a movie? I wanna get this night started so we can get it over with." His face suggested detachment, but the whole group knew that the Purge made Joey more uncomfortable than he was willing to admit.

"Good call, man. Now, I know it's out of season, but I thought we could start the night's viewing with..." Chandler reached into the box, "Die Hard!"

"That's a freakin' Christmas movie!" Phoebe called out.

"Well no, it's set at Christmas but it's not a Christmas movie." Ross interjected.

"Christmas movie or not, it's a good movie." Said Joey. "Die Hard looks good."

"Guys, before we start the movie can we...?" Ross asked, tentatively.

"This again? Come on man, you know I hate it, it's creepy." Joey replied.

"I know, it's just... It makes me feel better, y'know?"

Joey sighed deeply. "Okay, whatever."

The group stood and gathered in a circle. They joined hands and said in unison:"Blessed be our New Founding Fathers and America, a nation reborn. May God be with you all."

The Purge had officially begun.


	2. Chapter 2

The evening wore on. Movies were watched and games were played and snacks were eaten.

This was how most Purge nights went for the group. Whilst others were out on the streets 'releasing the beast' the friends were indoors, using their 12 hours of lawlessness to cheat at Monopoly.

They'd talked once about what they thought they would do if they ever decided to take part in the Purge and even joked about what they thought eachother would use the time for, but none of them had ever seriously considered going out and purging.

It felt like a ritual based in necessity. The people out on the streets were the ones with axes to grind or rage to vent. Sure you could raise Cain just for the Hell of it, but what was the point? The thrill? The burst of exhilaration?

Regardless of their varying views on the event, none of the six friends had ever felt the pull of the Purge, so they spent their time doing something of equal value to venting rage. They used the time to bond and reaffirm their friendship.

Perhaps it was the reinforced door, or the sound of chaos filtering through the walls, or the caches of guns and weapons hidden around the apartment but the 12 hours of socialising which took place on the night of the Purge felt more special than usual. More important.

Eventually people started getting tired. This was factored in to Monica's plan. They would take it in turns to keep watch whilst the others slept.

Joey and Chandler volunteered to take the first watch, so whilst the others went away to get some rest, they took up positions on the couch, guns and coffee to hand.

It had been strange for the group to adjust to the idea of having to use guns, but Monica had insisted they all go out and learn how to use them properly, as part of her Multi-Step Purge Plan. Phoebe was a natural which surprised nobody, but what was surprising is that Ross had also proven surprisingly capable.

Joey and Chandler settled into silence. As lighthearted as the Friends' Purge nights were, keeping watch could be a little tense at the beginning. It was less like they were guarding against trouble and more like they were just waiting for it to happen.

Eventually Chandler turned to Joey.

"Hey, you okay? You were quiet all evening."

Joey responded without looking at Chandler. "You know I hate the Purge, man. It's not a secret."

"Yeah, but we do all the fun stuff to forget about what's going on. You looked like your mind was out there on the street."

"Sorry for being a buzzkill." The comment was sarcastic, but there was no animosity to Joey's words

"Hey, you're preaching to the choir, I don't like it either. But we spend the night watching movies and stuffing our faces so we don't have to worry about not liking it. And also to shut Ross up." Chandler joked.

"For a guy who never purges, he sure does love the Purge. What the Hell is with that guy? Like, does he really think the Purge works?" Joey turned to Chandler for the first time.

"I hate to say it, bud, but it kinda does. Crime's just kinda gone away."

"But it hasn't gone away, man. It's just all mashed up into one night of mega-crime. And it's more than that to. It's like it's not even about crime. It's people acting like assholes. If the mailman's a douche, then boom, you go and kill him. The bus driver was 10 minutes late the day before the Purge, then bam, you set his house on fire."

Chandler didn't reply. Joey wasn't a booksmarts kind of guy, but he wasn't stupid. When it came to stuff like this, he could be pretty insightful.

Joey continued "They say it's about people releasing all that pent up anger, but, like, isn't the point of living in a society that you figure out how not to shoot a guy just because he was a jerk?"

"You know Joey, you're absolutely right. Hey, remember when you didn't get called back after you auditioned for that play and you said "I'm gonna purge that director so hard"? I'm glad to see you let go of that anger."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up wiseguy. Sure I got mad about that, but Joey Tribbiani doesn't need to Purge. I'm better than that." Joey retorted.

"I know, bud. I know."

The two friends settled back into their silence. His joking aside, Chandler had been worrying about his friend's unusual mood. But Joey could be a deep guy and he'd obviously given the Purge a lot of thought. That was probably a good thing. At least he was able to talk about it instead of letting it all build up inside him. After all, pent up negativity was why people said the Purge was necessary in the first place.

They had gotten to their second mug of coffee each, about halfway through their two-hour watch, when Joey turned to Chandler.

"Hey Chandler."

"Yeah?"

"If you were out there, what'd you be doing?"

It was a common question. In the quiet and the dark, watching the door and waiting for danger, a person's mind couldn't help but wander.

Chandler thought long and hard.

"You know what? I'd steal a chair."

"What, like a nice chair?

"No, Joey, i'd steal a gross chair from a dumpster. Of course a nice chair. One of those vibrating ones that massages you."

"And that's it? No jewellery, no valuable stuff, just a nice chair?"

"What would be the point of stealing jewellery, Joey? Am I gonna walk around New York the next day like a 70s pimp? People would be giving me looks like they wanna say "I know what you were doing last night". But I could keep the nice chair in the apartment and enjoy it and nobody would ever know."

"You're a real criminal mastermind, buddy."

"Obviously. Anyway, what about you, what would you be doing?"

There was a creak. The kind of loud, long creaking of a floorboard than happens when someone's walking slowly, trying not to be heard. It was close by their door as well.

Joey didn't answer Chandler's question. Instead the two men fell into a tense silence as they watched the door.

There was a long period of stillness. Even the sounds of the street seemed to fade away in anticipation.

Then they saw it. One shadow and then another, the silhouette of the feet of someone close to their door. Trying to peer in through the peep-hole, perhaps.

Joey and Chandler gave eachother a long, deliberate look. Neither man got to their feet or made any kind of sound or sudden movement.

But both slowly reached out for their weapons.


	3. Chapter 3

Joey and Chandler readied their weapons. Both carried a pistol, as did the other four. Easy to use for the group who were all less than experts in the use of firearms to say the least.

The man outside the door hadn't seemed to make any sort of movement. From the shadows that could be seen beyond the crack beneath the bottom of the door, he was standing very still, perhaps trying to look at the room through the door's peep-hole or pressing an ear to the wood to gauge whether anyone was awake and moving about inside.

Joey leaned over to Chandler and whispered in a soft voice "I'm gonna move to another position."

Chandler nodded. It was unlikely that someone was going to break down the door, but it was still possible. If their would-be assailant got into the apartment, it would be bad if Joey and Chandler were grouped up together in one spot.

Joey made to get up but paused. He slipped off his shoes and placed them very gently on the cushions next to him before getting to his feet.

In his socks he could more quietly move across the floor to another position at the back of the apartment.

Now separated with their guns at the ready, the two guards kept their pistols aimed at the door and readied themselves for what might be the first gunfight of their lives.

They waited. Minutes went by and nothing had happened. The shadow of the man's two feet, remained still, poised at the door waiting for... what? It was strange, unnerving.

After five full minutes of silent tension had passed by in the darkened apartment, Joey quietly and slowly moved back to Chandler and whispered in his ear.

"What's the deal with this, man? What's this guy trying to do, freak us out? Does he even know we're in here?"

"I don't know, Joey. Maybe he's not even dangerous. He hasn't done anything, he's just standing there."

"But why?"

"Maybe..." Chandler began his sentence, but exhaled a grunt through his nose self-dismissively.

"Go on, man." Joey encouraged.

"Okay, so maybe... This is stupid, but maybe he's some kind of pervert? Like a heavy breather or something. Maybe he knows we're in here and he's getting off on the idea that we're freaking out over him."

Joey had no response to this, he simply stared at Chandler with his mouth agape. Eventually he whispered back to Chandler. "We're getting ready to shoot this guy for five minutes and you're turning him into some kinda pervert?"

"Hey, I said it was stupid."

"Look, man, I think we gotta take a look at this guy."

"Oh, great idea Joey. Let's just open up the door and invite the guy in, i'm sure he's gonna be a real stand-up guy."

"Not open up the door, dummy, just check the peep-hole."

"For all we know, he's waiting for us to do exactly that so he can blast a hole in the door with a shotgun when he sees us check!"

"I'm not asking you to do it, Chandler. Just cover me. I'll try to lean in from the side so i'm not right in front of the door."

"This is a bad idea, Joey. This is a really bad move."

"Look, Chandler, I don't like it, but this is the Purge. This isn't just some pervert getting off to spooking people, this guy's playing some kind of game with us."

"So don't play it with him! He wants you to check, I know he does!"

"I'm doing it, Chandler. Just keep your eye on his shadow."

Despite Chandler's pleading eyes, Joey started his slow tiptoe to the door. He made sure to stay as quiet as possible, moving slowly on the balls of his feet and avoiding any of the squeaky floorboards that Monica had pointed out in her Purge Plan.

When he was close to the door he made sure to avoid the peep-hole at first. He didn't want to appear in front of it until he was in a safer position. Chandler, meanwhile, had trained his gun at the door.

In his heart of hearts, he wasn't really sure he knew what he was doing. Monica had ensured they knew how to use the guns, but knowing when to use them was all up to the situation. And this situation had thrown Chandler. What was he supposed to do when a person showed up at the door on the night of the Purge and did... Nothing?

Chandler hated that Joey was risking himself to try to figure things out, but it brought some small comfort, at least. Once they knew what was going on, they'd know what to do.

Joey was ready. Gun in hand, he was positioned on the opposite side of the door to Chandler. Their lurker was positioned directly in front of the door, so unless he was very short, Joey would be able to get a good look at him through the peep-hole.

He leaned over slowly, and then, when he was ready, pressed his eye to the peep-hole to reveal the truth.

He saw his and Chandler's apartment door. That was all. Empty space and nothing more.

He pulled himself back, confused and ill at ease. Joey was a man who trusted his instincts, and something about this wasn't right, he could feel it in his guts.

He looked back to Chandler, who looked back nervously at Joey in response to Joey's visible confusion. Joey's eyes drifted from Chandler to his own shoes, still positioned next to his friend on the couch cushion.

After that, it all clicked together.

Joey swivelled and recoiled from the door. In what was either good fortune or terrible coincidence it was then that he saw it, the shadow cast against the drawn curtains at the large window of the apartment.

A man's shadow.

Joey raised his gun and bullets started ripping through the air.

For the first time, the chaos of the Purge had breached the friends' apartment.


	4. Chapter 4

After the first howl of gunfire it seemed to Chandler that the confusion of their situation just melted away. He didn't know whether Joey or the interloper had fired first, but the moment he heard the sounds of action he shifted his weight and started firing himself. The world had turned simple.

Chandler had never considered himself much of a fighter, he was surprised with how quickly his body seemed to move to defend itself. Joey had thrown himself down to the ground whilst firing and the two friends shot until they heard their guns click.

The cold, dark quiet after the fiery burst of chaos seeped back into the room. Chandler shakily looked back to Joey, who seemed unharmed and was reloading his gun. Chandler moved to do the same.

The curtains were riddled with holes through which the moonlight and the breeze now filtered. As the curtains rustled slightly, Joey and Chandler could hear a man's moans.

"Get the others to cover us, then we can see who our new friend is." Joey told to Chandler without moving his eyes or his gun away from the window.

Chandler did so and went to the doors of the bedrooms, still closed after the fight. They would remain closed until the all-clear was given and Chandler knew that whoever was on the other side would be awake, alert and aiming their own guns at the closed door.

Chandler moved closer to the door to give the signal. _Clap clap clap clap_.

Almost immediately after the four quick claps were given, the bedroom doors opened and Ross, Phoebe, Rachel and Monica moved into the living room, guns at the ready.

"Where's the intruder?" Asked Monica, appraising the room with a steely gaze.

Joey nodded to the window in response. "Watch our backs while we check him."

Joey and Chandler moved towards the window from either side. They readied themselves whilst the other occupants took aim at the window. Chandler looked at Joey and raised three fingers... two... one...

Together, they grabbed the curtains and flung them apart to reveal the stairs of the fire escape. Upon them was a man. He'd taken shots to his shoulder and hand and his face was cut by shards of glass from the window. They recognised him. Though he was crumpled in pain, Gunther was still very much alive.

Chandler's face went slack with shock whilst Joey's had tensed and darkened.

"Gunther...?" Chandler spoke softly.

Cries and exclamations erupted from the four in the apartment upon hearing the name. Joey and Chandler carefully moved out onto the stairs themselves. Gunther's gun was gone, probably knocked from his grasp by the shot that had wounded his hand, and beyond that he seemed unarmed.

Joey grabbed the man and wrenched him to his feet before pushing him through the broken window pane and into the apartment with a grunt of exertion, heaving him on to the floor.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Joey have screamed at Gunther, who only whimpered in response, maybe from pain, maybe from fear.

"Answer him, Gunther!" Yelled Phoebe. Ross' face was a mask of pure disbelief and Rachel was pacing around behind him, head in her hands, trying to look anywhere but at the bloodied blond man on the floor.

After a lengthy pause, Joey pressed the barrel of his gun against Gunther's head.

"If you don't tell us what was going through your head when you decided to come here, i'm gonna make sure the next thing going through your head is a goddamn bullet!"

"No...! No, please!" Cried Gunther, "Don't do it, goddamn it, don't!"

"Tell us why you came here!" Yelled Phoebe.

"I heard you! I heard you talking about your Purge Plan in the cafe!" Gunther wailed, "I hear all your conversations. I'm always around and none of you ever notice me!" His voice had taken on an almost accusatory tone and his eyes flickered over to Rachel before he continued. "So I put the shoes in front of the door to distract you and then crept around... It was supposed to be quick. A surprise..."

"Why?!" Joey roared.

"I'm sick of it!" Gunther yelled. "I'm sick of being ignored! I deserve recognition! I deserve to be seen! I deserve to Purge goddamnit!"

His last words seemed almost to echo. The group was struck dumb.

"You're here... because you wanted to Purge us?" Phoebe asked, slowly. "Because we don't 'notice you'?"

Joey snarled and stepped back, pacing in anger, his teeth clenched.

"This is what the goddamn Purge does." he said, almost to himself. "It makes every entitled prick come out and blame their issues on somebody else. Every little thing."

"You can't blame me..." Gunther muttered deliriously. "You can't blame me... They told me to... They told me I had to release the beast... It's you... I have to purge all of you..."

Rachel rushed forward and kicked Gunther on the ground, hard, with tears in her eyes. The man just curled up tighter and buried his heads in his hands.

There was a long silence, then. It could have been a seconds or minutes but the friends just sat, dumbstruck. The betrayal had cut to the very heart of them. Eventually, Monica stirred herself into motion. She rose and fetched a pair of handcuffs, restraining his hands behind his back.

"Just in case he tries anything." She explained, her face stony and blank. She went over to one of the first-aid kits.

"What are you doing with that?" Joey asked.

"What do you think? I'm gonna make sure he doesn't bleed to death!" Monica replied.

"Why? He was gonna murder us!" Joey shouted. "He's lucky we don't return the favour! Hell, I'm considering it!"

"Joey!" Monica exclaimed in shock.

"What?! That's what the Purge is about, right?! Killing off every person who does the littlest annoying thing to us, right?! Ross, you're always going on about how successful the Purge is, tell Monica that I have every right to end this weasel right here, right now!"

Ross gaped at Joey. "Uh, yeah. I mean. Um. It's what the Purge is for. But, I mean... Joey, it's Gunther. And it's you! I don't know if you should be doing this..."

"Unbelievable!" Joey snarled and again continued his furious pacing, like a caged animal, his gun still in his hand.

Chandler had stayed by the window, keeping watch. He'd been trying not to think about what was happening, he couldn't even take refuge in humour. As his eyes scanned the world beyond the apartment, his eyes drifted towards something familiar. His eyes widened.

"Guys... Ugly Naked Guy... He's dead." Chandler called out, never once taking his eyes away from the window of the opposite apartment.

The other friends rushed over to see for themselves. Chandler was undeniably right. They could see Ugly Naked Guy lying on his apartment floor, a single red line across his throat, quiet and still.


	5. Chapter 5

"Ugly Naked Guy...?" Joey asked, his voice flat and half a whisper.

He received no response from the others, but needed none. The evidence was right there, clear to see.

"Of course. Of course that's what happened." Joey continued, his voice cracking. "Ugly Naked Guy's dead and somewhere out there some asshole's laughing his goddamn head off. That's all this is. It's stupid, it's so goddamn stupid."

Joey broke down then, sinking to the floor, sobbing openly. The others exchanged a look. They all felt the shock of their neighbour's death, but that's all Ugly Naked Guy had really been. A neighbour. Not one of the gang, not family.

"Did you know him Joey...?" Monica asked, kneeling and laying a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"No. I didn't even know his name... It's... It's not about Ugly Naked Guy. It's about this girl..." Joey shuddered and took a deep breath, collecting himself.

"Seeing Ugly Naked Guy brought it all back. I think about it all the time, but I try not to. I try to keep it to myself. It makes me so goddamn angry." Joey said, eyes lowered to the floor.

"Tell us, Joey. Maybe we can help." Said Rachel. Joey's friends gathered around him, ready to comfort and listen.

"You can't help. It's all over now. There isn't even much to tell." Joey said. "It was a few years ago. I started seeing this girl and, well, I liked her. She was special, it felt different being with her. I don't think I knew her long enough to have loved her, but would've. I know I would've fallen in love." Joey's voice no longer shook. It was flat, like he was reciting a line he'd spoken in his mind over and over again until the words started to lose meaning.

"When the Purge came around that year, I wanted her to stay with me, but she said she wanted to be with her family. I wanted to keep her with me but... Well, I couldn't say no to her." All at once, the feeling flooded back into him and his voice broke. "I should've. I should've, dammit, I should've..."

"You lost her, didn't you?" Asked Phoebe quietly. Joey didn't speak but just nodded. "Oh, Joey, I'm so sorry. I wish we could've met her."

"Yeah, me too." Said Joey. "Me too. But that's the thing. You'll never meet her and we'll never know Ugly Naked Guy."

Joey looked at Gunther, then, and something ugly flashed across his expression. Bitter, angry and cruel. "That's not even what makes me so damn sad." He continued.

"I went to her funeral. Her whole family's funeral. I didn't know her long, but they were nice to me. Good people. And then this guy shows up, crying and I feel for the guy, of course I do. We end up talking and I ask how he knew her..." The ugliness crept back into Joey's face as he went on, settling onto him and solidifying.

"He was crying because he was the goddamn rat who killed her!" As he said this he slammed his fist on to the floor, his face red and his eyes agape.

"She'd turned him down a couple of times so he went out and massacred her!" Joey's had risen, his temper causing his yells to take on a wild and uncontrolled pitch.

"And then he turned up at her funeral, in front of her family and CRIED OVER IT!" At this point Joey was bellowing, an wounded animal noise of true fury, as he stared directly at Gunther.

The group who had gathered around Joey to support him almost recoiled. Joey was a passionate man and they'd seen him angry before. But this was different. This was truly frightening. Ross was eyeing Joey's gun and made himself ready to restrain his friend, should he try to do something he might regret.

Joey was breathing heavily but he seemed to collect himself, at least a little. The anger was still there in every syllable, but his voice had shrunk to a more human volume.

"So the next year... I got him."

As he said this, he let out a deep, deep sigh. The exhalation came from the very core of him, a sigh of pain and rage and relief. A weighing secret had been set free.

"I told my family I was staying with you guys. I told you guys I was staying with family. Then I went out and I got him. I got that slimy cockroach."

Joey's friends looked at him, very quietly. That bestial rage that had overcome him moments ago had passed like a storm at sea and he seemed almost tranquil now. He was still and calm. His eyes were pointed at Gunther, but Joey wasn't looking at him. He was looking at something he'd done years ago.

"I get it, you know." Joey croaked. "I really get it. 'Release the beast'. I totally understand it."

A deep, contemplative silence settled over the group. Joey seemed almost serene, a man who'd been freed from the chains of a terrible bondage. The others, though, were deeply afraid. Phoebe couldn't help but imagine Joey, full of that same dark, righteous wrath he'd shown moments ago, as he stood over some stupid fool of a man and... "got" him.

"I hated it." Joey said, breaking the silence. "I was like an animal, it shouldn't have been right, but it was. The world told me it was. I did it and I left and the next day people smiled at me on the street. I hated it because it felt more natural than anything i'd ever done. I hated it because I loved it."

Joey's eyes began to focus in the here and now again as his reverie ended.

"That's what you were gonna do to us, Gunther? You were gonna do what I did?"

Like tremors before a volcanic eruption, all the people gathered in the room knew what Joey was going to do. His anger had gone dormant only briefly but as reality settled back in to the forefront of his mind, it was clear that feral redness in Joey's soul would re-emerge, directed at Gunther.

All was stillness. Then, like lightning, Joey's gun arm flashed upwards.


	6. Chapter 6

Ross was already moving when Joey's arm sprung up to level the barrel of the gun at Gunther. He'd known what was gonna happen, what Joey was going to try to do. Everyone did on some level.

He managed to grab on to Joey's arm, his momentum causing Joey to lurch, unbalanced, as he tried to regain control. Though Ross was big and had taken Joey by surprise, Joey was stronger than the palaeontologist and managed to push his friend away in short order. He swung his arm back around only to be met by Phoebe who grabbed his wrist, wrestling for control of the gun.

Gunter pressed himself up against the wall beneath the window, eyes wide in panic. He didn't care about the broken glass, he only cared about making himself look small, unnoticeable, beneath contempt or vengeance.

Chandler moved over to help Phoebe whilst Monica went to her brother who'd fallen heavily and looked hurt. Rachel was pressed up against the wall with her hand clasped firmly against her mouth as she stared at the violence which had crashed into the apartment.

Phoebe twisted Joey's arm, causing the gun to slip from his fingers. He knocked Phoebe away and tried to snatch it up but his other arm was being held firm by Chandler who was heaving him in the opposite direction. Joey swiftly changed direction, shifting back into Chandler and sending his elbow into his friend's stomach, knocking him back. Phoebe kicked at Joey's gun, sending it skittering over the floor before diving back at Joey, half wrestling with him and half embracing him, trying to hold back the beast and calm the man he'd been before.

The gun finished its short journey at Rachel's feet, knocking into her lightly. The tap seemed to help her out of her daze, an insistent nudge reminding her of a reality she couldn't wish away in panic. In a second she took in the grim scene, her friends scattered around the room fighting and crying out. Her eyes met Joey's, which were wide and desperate, locked upon the gun. In a flash she made her decision.

As Joey managed to untangle himself from Phoebe, Rachel picked up the gun. Though her hands were shaking as she reached for it, they became calm as her hands closed around the grip. She stood and raised the gun in a swift motion, aiming it at Joey, at those wild eyes.

"Stop, Joey!" She cried out, her voice ringing through the apartment like a clarion call, cutting through the noise of struggle and exertion.

Joey stopped. Everyone stopped. Even Gunther ceased his shaking.

"Rache-" Joey began.

"No, Joey. Stop now. Don't move." Rachel insisted, firmly.

Joey made no moves forward, simply raising his hands. But his eyes didn't change. They betrayed his intentions, his anger, still bubbling beneath a supposedly tamed exterior.

"Joey. I understand that you're angry. But I hope _you _understand that i'm scared. We all are. You probably are too underneath all that anger."

"Rachel, come on now... There's no need for you to be scared... I'd never hurt any of _you_ guys..."

"Joey... The Purge has brought something out in you. Something horrible. I know you wouldn't hurt us, but you have to understand, I can't let you hurt anyone. If I do then you'll just sink deeper into... whatever _this_ side of you is. This angry monster. So I want you to sit down now." Rachel's voice had been soft, but the last sentence was hard, a command. But Joey made no move to sit down.

"Joey," Rachel repeated, "sit down. You're gonna take some deep breaths and we're gonna calm dow-"

Before Rachel could finish her sentence, Joey leapt forward. His eyes were not locked upon Rachel anymore but upon the gun. Rachel's body moved faster than she thought it was able, a lightning reaction to the most tense scenario she'd ever faced.

Her arm jerked.

She flung the gun away from herself, towards the open window, out into the bloody night where a crude tool of violence belonged. Joey stopped in his advance, his eyes following the flight of the weapon across the room. It felt to Rachel as if a great pressure had dissipated, a pressure that had grown and grown in those seconds of eternity where she'd had the gun levelled at her friend. She could never have shot at Joey, just as she knew there was truth in Joey's words, that he would never try to hurt her.

_Clang... Clunk..._

For years to come, whenever she would look back on this night, Rachel knew it was those heavy, metallic sounds which haunted her. They were the sounds of misfortune, the sounds of failure. But in a more literal sense, they were the sounds of the gun knocking into the railing outside of the window and falling on to the stairs outside, where it could be picked up by anyone.

Joey was already back in motion, this time tearing off towards the window. But Chandler was closer and had already moved out and on to the stairs, scooping up the gun as Joey flew out to meet him.

The metallic sounds seemed to be ringing in Rachel's ears as she watched. _Clang... Clunk... _Slow, clumsy sounds.

Joey reached out to grab the gun in Chandler's hand as they grappled.

The motion and momentum of the two men took them sideways, pressing heavily against the railing. Rachel would always recall the looks on Joey and Chandler's faces, going from expressions of concentration and anger to matching visages of total shock. The railing buckled and gave way beneath the two friends' weight.

_Clang. Clunk._

All in all, they must have only been grappling out on the stairs for seconds. But it would seem like aeons in the collective recollections of those who watched it happen.

For a moment they floated, suspended in the cold air of the night like snowflakes caught in the breeze, brief and beautiful.

And then they toppled down and out, into the darkness.


	7. Chapter 7

The inevitable wave of funerals that occurred after a Purge sometimes tended to have an almost business-like atmosphere to them. They almost seemed transactional in nature. Some people gave their lives to feed the beast in exchange for safeguarding American peace and prosperity for another year. It wasn't that the funerals were un-emotional but after all these years Purge deaths were often viewed simply as less tragic events than ordinary deaths by most people who didn't know the dearly departed.

If you told someone a loved one had died during the Purge, you'd always receive sympathy. But empathy? Very rarely. The Purge had a way of killing that part of the human experience when it rolled around.

And so, your pain would be understood, but never shared. You'd carry it alone, like Joey had. It was the price you paid for 363 days of tranquillity.

Chandler's funeral was more widely attended than Joey's. The only people who turned up at Joey's funeral were his immediate family, Ross, Rachel and Phoebe. Monica had refused to attend Joey's funeral, she blamed him for Chandler's death.

Gunther did not turn up to either function, to the relief of everyone. Once the sun had risen over the world and the Purge had ended, the four remaining friends had bluntly told the man that he was to leave New York and never return. He'd wept at that. He truly didn't understand what he'd done wrong.

The sunrise had been hard for everyone. After Joey and Chandler had fallen off of the stairs and in to the darkness, Phoebe and Monica had wanted to go out into the street below to try and find them. A gritty hopefulness had cemented itself in their minds, blocking out the grim reality of the situation, the notion that no-one could have survived the fall from that height, that the friends would have heard them crying out if they had.

Ross and Rachel had persuaded them to stay put, to wait. The sounds of bloodshed and gleeful violence were loud out on the city streets and there was no guarantee of safety, far from it.

Eventually, Phoebe had plucked up the nerve to peer over the edge, to inspect the prone forms of her two friends lying down on the cement below from the relative safety of the shadowed apartment. They had lain there before her eyes, calm and still in unnerving contrast to the rage and struggle the two had shown before as they'd competed for the gun.

If one had viewed the two bodies lying there together in the alley, unseeing eyes staring at one another's faces, one might never have guessed that these two had died as foes and not friends.

At left at dawn to go and retrieve the bodies, unknowingly taking part in a grim national tradition that was as old as the Purge itself - The cleanup.

It was as they feared. Tears were shed, tears of anger and sorrow and confusion. How long had it taken for lives to be shattered, for their friendship of years to be broken to pieces? An hour? Half of that? The Purge had always seemed like a distant thing, a faraway nightmare that other people dreamed up for themselves.

The four friends sat together after Chandler's funeral. It had been a week since the Purge. The world was a different, cruel place now. Without Chandler's dry sarcasm and Joey's oblivious charm, the bonds between them did not feel so tight anymore. When they were six they had been ideal, perfectly balanced, perfectly matched. But now? The mood of the group was such that staying together did not feel like an option.

It was Phoebe who broke the silence to ask the question which hovered in everyone's mind.

"What do we do now?"

They sat and thought upon this. It was a simple question but one with seemingly no answer. They mourned for Chandler, but when each of the four thought of Joey a twisted knot of savage emotion welled up within each of them.

They grieved for Joey, for the man he used to be before the end, before he had been taken by the Purge's violent reliefs. Can the final minutes of a man's life be the most definitive? Perhaps Joey's last moments wouldn't undo the years of friendship he'd brought to the group, but it will take a long time to forgive, and an eternity to forget.

Monica's pain was especially great. She was angry, she had not stopped feeling angry since the night of the Purge. She had loved Joey, one of the dearest and sweetest men she'd ever known, but the way he'd lost control, the way he'd caused the death of her beloved, her Chandler... It was too much for her. It was a betrayal, pure and simple, a betrayal of her friendship, of Chandler's friendship, of the very ideals of kindness and compassion which she had believed Joey would stand for.

She had snapped and snarled at Ross, Rachel and Phoebe when they had asked if she would attend Joey's funeral. There was a part of her which knew she should, if not to honour the memory of the years of friendship Joey had provided then at least for closure. But she simply couldn't.

Ross was shaken also, not just because of the loss of his two friends but because of the loss of his faith in a system he'd thought was intelligent and functional. He was a scientist, a man of reason. The Purge had seemed so effective when he'd viewed it from within the bubble of one who'd never been affected by it. Where had it gone wrong? Had it gone wrong at all?

Was this pain he felt what the Purge was truly about? He supposed it may well be. He felt crushed, flattened. Perhaps that's what the makers of the Purge wanted. A populace too burned out on the hatred and the violence to misbehave. Cruelty wasn't a side effect, it was the primary product of the Purge.

Rachel and Phoebe had spent much time in each others company, working together in comforting the distraught Monica and trying to reach out to the despondent Ross. They had spoken much of what had happened of how they hadn't spotted Joey's anger, his pain. They wondered whether they had failed one another. Had there been signs, warnings of what might have come? No. Were it not for Gunther's wretched vendetta, Joey and Chandler might have been with them still. Their anger was directed towards that bleach-blonde gremlin. It was him they should have watched, his behaviour they ought to have noted.

But as they comforted one another, there was another conclusion they had come to.

What would they do now? They knew.

"I think we need some space, guys." Rachel said, after a pause.

Monica looked up at her. "What do you mean?"

"I love you guys and i'll always be here for all of you and of course I hope you'll always be here for me. But to be with you all right _now_... It doesn't make me feel better. It just reminds me of who isn't here anymore." Rachel explained sadly.

"Rachel's right," Phoebe agreed, "My head's all full of... Mess and blergh right now. I think I need time to process it and be alone. Do my own thing for a while. I think I wanna go on the road, just me and my music."

Monica looked at the two, a retort rising up within her. But it died down before she spoke it. It was true.

"My parents have invited me to come and stay with them for a while..." Monica admitted. They had phoned her as soon as the Purge was over to see if she was okay and immediately surmised that she wasn't. They'd rushed down immediately to comfort her and Ross and had been looking after them as if they were children once again, showering them in parental love to ease the pain.

Monica thought that they might blame themselves for what had happened, that maybe they thought they should have pushed harder for Ross and Monica and their friends to stay with them for the Purge. The idea that her parents felt guilt for what had occurred made Monica feel even worse.

"I think i'll take them up on it." Monica said. "I just feel so... so..."

"Tired?" Rachel asked.

"Tired..." Monica repeated. She was going to say angry but... Tired. It was true. She felt exhausted. Between the bouts of rage there was a foul numbness in her, a sickly sweet feeling behind her ribs that sapped her will to do anything at all.

Ross cleared his throat. He'd been in another world. "I think that's a good idea, Monica. I think some distance would be good... There's an opportunity that's come up for me with the palaeontology department. I think i'm gonna accept it. I think i'm gonna do what Phoebe's gonna do, throw myself into some work..."

Phoebe looked at Ross. "I'd hardly call scrabbling about in the dirt comparable to the masterpieces I create, but whatever." Her jape was lighthearted and they both chuckled a little, albeit halfheartedly.

They fell back into a silence for a time.

Eventually Rachel spoke.

"Well then. I suppose we're all agreed. But let's promise not to lose touch. I meant what I said, I'm always here for you guys."

Phoebe nodded and Ross reached over and squeezed Rachel's hand. "Of course, Rachel."

Monica raised her head. "Absolutely. Hey, why don't you guys come over. I'll make you all something to eat before we all... before we go."

The friends stood up from their seats and made to leave. They weren't whole, not anymore. But over time they would be. They would grow as people and fill the gaps created by the absence of their two dearly departed companions. The night of the Purge was a lesson, one of the cruellest life could provide, but a lesson nonetheless.

Blessed be our New Founding Fathers and America, a nation reborn. Those words now rang so hollow.

But in time, when the pain had scarred over and they had purged the anger and confusion from their souls, perhaps their friendship would be reborn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoyed this. I had a lot of fun writing it and I just hope I did both the characters of Friends and the setting of The Purge justice.
> 
> After this final chapter there's an epilogue. In time there may be a sequel and if there is then it will be a lot goofier and more lighthearted in tone than this work. It'll pick up from where the epilogue leaves off.
> 
> Until then, stay tuned!


	8. Epilogue

'Distance' Ross thought, as he trudged over the sands to the site of the dig. Well, Egypt was certainly quite a distance away from America!

The moment his plane landed, Ross felt a weight lift from off of his shoulders. Even though the next Purge was most of the year away, he still felt better being out of the country altogether. The blazing light of the hot African sun seemed to banish the darkness of the memories of the Purge from his mind as he walked.

The discovery out in the desert was fascinating. Apparently, an almost perfect dinosaur skeleton had been found out in the dunes here, with many more discovered in close proximity. What was stranger, they were skeletons of dinosaurs which weren't even supposed to be native to this area. It was an incredible find, one which Ross was honoured to work on. He was already planning out what to write on the postcards he planned to send to Monica and Rachel and Phoebe.

Ross smiled. This was a mystery indeed, one he couldn't wait to solve!

The intrepid Palaeontologist marched onward, oblivious to just how truly strange this discovery would turn out to be. The hot Egyptian breeze shifted the sands this way and that. There weren't just old bones to be found out here. What the wind had uncovered by chance, humans would fully unearth and in doing so discover something far, far more valuable.

Beneath the feet of dinosaurs, a little way beneath the sands lay an old tomb. Or perhaps it was a vault...

The air in the vault was dead and dusty and had not been breathed in millennia. Yet it almost sparked with anticipation as curious minds and exploring hands drew ever closer to a magnificent prize. Soon, a priceless treasure of the ancient world would glint in Ra's sunlight once more, held aloft by the hands of Ross Geller.


End file.
